THE Australian airline Qantas is to create several hundred jobs in southeast England by establishing its first British base for cabin crew.

Qantas confirmed last week that it would employ 400 cabin crew in Britain to staff its flights from Heathrow. Industry sources have told The Sunday Times that UK employment could eventually grow to 1,000. Australians working for the airline in Australia would be given first call on the new jobs, chief executive Geoff Dixon said.

The new UK operation will service a big expansion in Qantas flights between Heathrow and Australasia. The Sunday Times revealed earlier this year that Qantas had paid a record £20m to buy two pairs of runway slots at the London airport. The airline plans to increase its flights from Heathrow from 21 to 27 a week — all using Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

The Qantas expansion signals what many analysts expect will be a full-on fares war on the so-called “kangaroo” routes between London and Australasia. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic plans its first services to Australia later this year.

Meanwhile, other airlines plan to increase their capacity on the route. Singapore Airlines, which will be the first airline to run commercial flights with the new Airbus A380 super-jumbo, has said it will deploy it on the London-Singapore-Sydney run. Emirates, the fast-growing Dubai-based airline, will also fly its A380s into Heathrow.